Jonathan Rodgers (jrodgers@lifesci.ucla.edu) is our local CCLE support staff member for Life Sciences. He or a member of his IT team can help you with installation or other tech-related issues.

Consultation on Question Design/Pedagogical Practices for Using iClicker and other Polling Tools

A member of the CEILS team would be happy to meet with you and discuss some best practices for designing engaging questions to use with polling software. Contact media@ceils.ucla.edu to schedule a consultation.

Remote Rental for Students

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) has a limited number of iClicker student remotes available for rental: https://www.teaching.ucla.edu/iclicker-rentals

Why should I use "peer instruction" to make my class more interactive?

In this video, Harvard Physics Professor Eric Mazur shares the story of the moment he realized his outstanding teaching reviews were not actually resulting in the student learning outcomes he believed he was achieving – a harsh wake-up call that led him to discover the teaching strategy he named “peer instruction”.

What is peer instruction? Peer instruction refers to the practice of students learning through discussion with peers.

Why use peer instruction? It is one of the most research-validated forms of active learning; the “Research” tab at this AAPT link includes a long list of studies supporting the practice.

Strategies for Success in Clicker/Polling Implementation

What are the best practices for using in-class polling technology to facilitate peer instruction?

This video showcases some of the best practices and researched education theory for implementing polling technology in the classroom.

Plan how clicker use could contribute to your goals. Do not attempt all the possible uses described above at one time.

You MUST MUST MUST explain to students why you are using clickers. If you don’t, they often assume your goal is to track them like Big Brother, and force them to come to class. Students highly resent this.

Practice before using with students. Remember how irritated you get when A/V equipment fails to work. Don’t subject students to this.

Use a combination of simple and more complex questions. Many users make questions too simple.

If your goal is to increase student learning, have students discuss and debate challenging conceptual questions with each other. This technique, peer instruction, is a proven method of increasing learning. Have students answer individually first; then discuss with those sitting next to them; then answer again.

Use the time that students are discussing clicker questions to circulate and listen to their reasoning.

Niemeyer & Zewail-Foote (2018, Journal of Chemical Education) found that compared to men, women had significantly higher perceptions of the benefits of clickers and their ability to increase student engagement.

There are several free or low-cost polling tools for your smart phone or other electronic device. Note that some UCLA faculty have reported experiencing wi-fi issues when trying to use these online polling applications (i>clicker uses radio frequency rather than a wi-fi signal and thus bypasses this issue). That being said, if you opt to try an alternative polling system, please test the online application prior to use in a specific classroom, especially if implementing the technology in a large class. Note that we also suggest using these online polling tools at workshops and conferences — they provide an excellent way to make your seminar talks interactive!

We recommend using iClicker software if possible in order to not only view student responses, but also to be able to analyze the results of your polling by individual student or the class as a whole and award participation points.

However, if you would prefer a non-technology option or want to provide non-technology options to your TAs for their discussion sections, you can use these voting cards. Either print them for students or ask students to print (in color!) and bring one to all classes.

These cards can be folded and held up during class as you ask multiple choice questions.